Do the team here at PC Gamer ever build a PC using their top recommended components and compare it to their most recommended prebuilt?

[ModerateZanskau]

I was browsing the massive, collated Hardware Recommendations page and noticed there’s a top 5 for everything from motherboard and GPU to Case and Fan, and thought it would be rather interesting to see how a PC built entirely using components that scored “best overall” at a given moment in time might A) perform in modern games and B) compare to the prebuilt PC that similarly take the “best overall” crown, both in performance and price.

It’s the sort of thing that could be done every couple of years, and I assume at little cost, given you’d need to already have the parts available to review them.

Maybe it’s already been done and I’ve just missed it, maybe it’s a bad idea for some reason I haven’t worked out, but I think it would be neat, and maybe also help people make a decision regarding building from components vs buying complete, seeing money saved or performance gained (or lost, as the case may be!)

Thanks

 

[neogunhero]

I think that would be a good idea for them to do every so often. Those lists change a few times a year so they wouldn't do it each time they update it, but maybe once a year it would be a good idea. Another thing, they often put hardware on those Best lists with a major caveat being the price. They score the hardware based off MSRP pricing, but they also understand that hardware is very often not at MSRP, so that is something to keep in mind. It wouldn't be of much use if they built a PC that was hundreds over baseline MSRP prices and compared it to a prebuilt where the company building it has access to MSRP priced hardware.

Also... PCG needs to build another Large Pixel Collider!!!

Behold! The Large Pixel Collider is the most powerful PC we've ever built

Our Ark of the Covenant-themed super build is finally complete. Ready to have your face melted?

www.pcgamer.com

 

[mjs warlord]

I know this is an old posting but i saw it below another thread i was contributing to.
When i first started to buy pc gamer magazine they used to review games and report how they ran on budget machines as well as expensive ones but they dont do that now , i guess its because these days budet machines are as good as top of the range machines were many years ago.

For those of you who dont but the magazine now they do 4 different builds in each issue and swap out the parts every so often , they do budget , mid range , high end and feature an ideal build.


I cant remember the guys name but on youtube their used to be videos of a guy who went to pc shows to show off a games rig he made price was 30K

 

[neogunhero]

I know this is an old posting but i saw it below another thread i was contributing to.
When i first started to buy pc gamer magazine they used to review games and report how they ran on budget machines as well as expensive ones but they dont do that now , i guess its because these days budet machines are as good as top of the range machines were many years ago.

We don't have many Crysis-style games anymore. When that game first came out, only the most expensive, top tier PCs could handle it well. These days games come out with much better optimization and ways to make it run on slower machines.

I'll also say that PCG typically uses fairly average PCs to review games. Mid-high tier, nothing crazy. They don't review games with the most powerful hardware and expect everyone to have the same level of performance as them. I do think it would help to include more hardware configurations in the game reviews though.